Mandatory registration of Public Interest Entity audit firms comes into force

News types: Generic Announcement, Publications

Published: 5 December 2022

From today, 5th December, onwards, all audit firms and responsible individuals (RIs) who undertake statutory audit work for Public Interest Entities (PIEs) must be registered by the Financial Reporting Council.

By directly registering audit firms and individuals signing PIE audit reports, the FRC will be able to act decisively when it identifies systemic issues that risk affecting audit quality.

This enhances the FRC’s ability to drive improvements, ensure firms are growing sustainably and more closely monitor the auditor’s work as well as enabling the FRC to apply conditions or undertakings when concerns are identified.

To date, 35 audit firms and almost 650 RIs have been registered. The PIE Auditor Register can be found at www.frc.org.uk/pie-auditor-register

The FRC’s Executive Director of Supervision, Sarah Rapson said:

“High quality audit is of fundamental importance to the UK economy and wider society.Where there are systemic issues in an audit firm the FRC will now be able to act decisively to enhance public confidence in audit.

"We look forward to working constructively with the firms to successfully implement the new registration regime.”